Steel Silver
by Auralee Wisteria
Summary: "They're both made of steel and silver. Aggression and passion." Bucky Barnes finds himself at the crossroads when he meets the enemy HYDRA created, by his side during his years of captivity, for him to face when the inevitable comes - when memories of his past start coming back. Only, the Winter Soldier was not the only weapon HYDRA developed that, in the end, turned against them.


Author's Note: Please bear with me. This is my first fic I've written and submitted for the Marvel Cinematic Universe - specifically for the Captain America category, where non-slash fics are uncommon. That's all for now.

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><p><em><strong>( <strong>_· **STEEL SILVER **· _**)**_

**Prologue**

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><p><strong>[<strong> 02:54 PM ━ April 16th, 2007 **]** Manila, Philippines

All her senses were amplified. But that well-known fact was not helping her in any way at all. She could feel perspiration trickling down her forehead, her own heart hammering hard in her chest, the metallic taste of blood that seeped through the wound she had bitten on her tongue, the iron grip the man beside her had on her right arm - every moment of what she was going through was being thoroughly recorded by her mind as the seconds ticked by.

"Please, stop this." her words escaped, barely a whisper. But the man beside her heard every syllable well enough for a smirk to cross his lips.

"Just keep your mouth shut and watch. Enjoy the show." he replied, only tightening his grip on her arm as she pressed her lips in pain.

The sound of giggling reached her ears as her line of sight was crossed by a toddler who held a balloon's string with his little fingers. _Please, get out of here, _she thought as she swallowed thickly. By that time, her own beating heart had become a roaring in her ears. Panic was rapidly rising inside her and the increasing amount of people arriving only strengthened her urge to scream out.

"What time is it?" she then asked in a trembling voice.

"Two fifty-five." came the quick reply.

_Five minutes._

Five minutes until there was another name to add to the list. To _his_ list.

Gritting her teeth as she began to weakly tug her arm away from the male, he merely sent her a glare before she resorted to stopping seeing how her attempt resulted in nothing useful.

"Get me out of here. Get _us_ out of here." she demanded once again, the heat no longer bothering her as much as awhile ago while her eyes frantically searched for the target.

What had she seen in the file earlier? A doctor, it was a doctor. Male. Doctor Miguel Serrano. She hadn't taken in much, just vital information - that he was quite prominent for attempting to work on a super soldier serum as well and other experiments that appeared to be of large value. And that when HYDRA tried to recruit him, he had straightforward refused and barely escaped, alive, from their meeting place after he threatened to reveal to the public specific information regarding another project that her captors clearly had no intention to spill to her. And when she pressed them on, they simply said that the project would be their trump card. Not her, not the Winter Soldier, but the hidden project.

She had also learned that Dr. Serrano had secretly worked on a similar project and had apparently achieved something HYDRA's scientists weren't able to. And now, they wanted whatever he had.

"We? Get out of here?" the man beside her answered, scoffing at her plead.

The female furrowed her brows in disgust, tugging her arm once more. "No. Me and . . . him_._"

She could see that her answer had wiped the smirk off his face, as the serious facade came back to cover up any emotions he had at the moment.

Seeing that she had silenced him, she continued. "I beg you, he doesn't need anothe-"

"Him? Or you?" he then turned to face her, an irritated look on his face. "If I remember right, it was you who wanted to come in the first place!" he whispered furiously - evidently, she had successfully gotten on his nerves.

"I never said that!" she whispered back, gritting her teeth hard as she felt her blood boil. She wasn't about to explain her case to him so she left it at that.

"She's right," the voice from the man's earpiece said, loud and clear enough for the woman to hear as well. "Nielsen wanted her to come. As a witness."

_As a witness,_ she thought bitterly. She recalled the recent event then; Nielsen forced her to come and watch as the assassination would take place.

If anything, it was to torment her the more. It wasn't supposed to help her in any case. As far as she knew, anyway.

"Two fifty-six." her bodyguard then chimed in, the smirk back on his lips. _Four minutes._ Oh, how much she wanted to punch that smirk off his ugly face.

Rizal Park, the place was called. HYDRA's spies reported earlier that their target had planned a family outing that afternoon. The same time Nielsen decided they'd pay the doctor a visit. The last visit Dr. Serrano was gonna have, that is.

It had been three months since HYDRA had paid him the visit. The whole time then, she had bothered to keep herself updated on what was happening. Nielsen obliged. After Dr. Serrano successfully escaped from their clutches however, Nielsen decided to let him go. But that didn't mean they were letting the leash go with him as well.

For three months, they waited. HYDRA assumed he had gone to hiding. But all the wait was worth it because from were they were now, they could see that he had finally left hibernation and was out and about again. She guessed that he thought that HYDRA had perhaps _really_ let him go. That they no longer paid mind to him. That he was free and safe.

But she knew that it would be his gravest mistake yet.

"Two fifty-seven." the man cuckoo-ed again before he began to whistle.

"Shut up." she answered through gritted teeth, the metallic and salty taste of blood still lingering inside her mouth.

_Where is he?_ she thought, grey hues darting as far as she could manage in a search for the doctor and his family's whereabouts. As the minutes passed by, the park had begun to slowly but steadily fill up with more people. With more witnesses. The female winced at the thought as she pulled the image from her memories - tan skin, graying hair, flat nose . . .

_There!_

Spotting him among the crowds spared her a second of relief but that was it. From where she was, she could see the doctor donning a sky blue polo as he carried a young girl in his arms while walking by his side was a striking female who could only be his wife.

_No. Please, no._

The image broke her heart. Because after today's events, there would only be one more fatherless child and one more widow. And worse of all, there would be one more dead person to add to his list. One more weight to heave down the guilt when he would realize . . .

And there she was standing, with a man keeping her in place with his iron grip on her arm as she simply watched, unable to do something. Anything, at all.

"Two fifty-eight."

Why was it that when you wanted time to slow down, those where the moments when time actually seems to speed up the more? Was there any way in the universe where one could actually stop time?

"Two fifty-nine."

_No!_

The small family was several meters away. If she could just run . . .

She saw him turn his head, away from his daughter and towards her direction. She felt the man's grip tighten all the more, a short and pained gasp escaping her lips.

Did she say that out loud?

She felt her bodyguard tug her closer to himself and the movement was just exactly what she needed as the second he did so, she pulled her arm away with all the strength, no matter how little, she had at the moment. The moment she made up her mind to go against orders.

Then she ran.

She ran as fast as her legs could carry her - yes, she was still weak, recuperating from the recent week's recent experiment but she was straining herself. Her hands were pushing people away - she could feel her bodyguard chasing behind her as he screamed her name.

_Please._

But it was too late.

_Three o'clock,_ a spiteful voice inside her head whispered, killing any light of hope she had then, the moment a shot was heard, a loud _bang!_ echoing through the park.

Her legs dropped to a stop as she caught her breath. She cursed that moment when time actually seemed to stop. Eyes followed the legs that fell, the body that collapsed, the screaming and running citizens, the child's fall, the wife's cry. Her eyes saw the crimson red pouring out of the head wound the shot went through.

Another name to list down.

"Tulong!"

Help. The word meant help. It was shouted in the woman's mother tongue, Filipino, as she dropped to her knees to cradle her husband's corpse, the young daughter crawling in front of the body as both sobbed in fear and grief. That single word, that one cry of help and despair, would be enough then to sear yet another scar into her mind. Another painful memory for him and herself to recall when their darkest moments would come.

_And they'll never know why nor who._

The last thing she ever saw that day was him. Turning her head away from the heartbreaking scene when she knew she'd no longer be able to handle it, that's when her eyes caught sight of him calmly yet subtly going against the mass of people.

Swift and silent. A shadow. A ghost. Him.

_Bucky._

Then she felt a punch land on the back of her head; it was enough to knock her out. To close her eyes, to welcome the darkness - she slipped into the oblivion called unconsciousness.

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><p><span>Author's Note:<span> Do I have your attention now? Sorry for the short chapter but, hey, this is just the prologue. You can start expecting a lot more after this one. And for those wondering, this fic will be completely and strictly held only in Marvel Cinematic Universe canon. I guess that's for now? Please do kindly leave a review - comments, criticism, and the like are more than welcome but please, no hate.


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